Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas Has Received More Than $4 Million In Gifts While On High Court

A new report by the watchdog group Fix the Court has exposed the enormous number of gifts Supreme Court justices have received since the early 2000s. The data, released on Friday, paints a disturbing picture of the ethical landscape at the highest levels of the judiciary.

The data shows that over the past two decades, Supreme Court justices have collectively accepted nearly $5 million in gifts, with one justice, Clarence Thomas, accounting for the vast majority of this figure. Thomas, nominated to the Supreme Court by former President George H.W. Bush, has received $4,042,286 in 193 gifts since 2004. The group has identified an additional 126 “likely but not confirmed” gifts received by Thomas.

The report also highlights the discrepancy between the gifts received and the number of gifts reported by the justices on their financial disclosure forms. According to the data, out of the nearly 200 gifts received by Thomas, he only reported 27 on his official filings.

The second-highest recipient of gifts was the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who received $210,164 in gifts from January 2004 until his passing in 2016. The total of gifts received by all current and former justices since 2004 is estimated to be around $4.7 million.

Gabe Roth, the executive director of Fix the Court, expressed deep concern over these findings. “Supreme Court justices should not be accepting gifts, let alone the hundreds of freebies worth millions of dollars they’ve received over the years,” he said. “Public servants who make four times the median local salary, and who can make millions writing books on any topic they like, can afford to pay for their vacations, vehicles, hunting excursions and club memberships.”

The report has reignited the ongoing debate about the need for stricter gift acceptance rules and greater transparency within the Supreme Court. As Roth aptly stated, “The ethics crisis at the court won’t begin to abate until justices adopt stricter gift acceptance rules.”

Thomas has already been under scrutiny for accepting lavish vacations from billionaires. The justice is known to have frequently complained about his $300,000 annual salary. One benefactor bought Thomas’ mother’s home for him.